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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: KANSAS CITYMarch 19, 2009Jermaine BoldenTodd BozemanMarquise KatelyKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI OKLAHOMA – 82 COACH TODD BOZEMAN: Well, first of all, I'd like to congratulate Oklahoma. Jeff's done a great job with this program. They're an outstanding ball club and we'll coached and Blake Griffin is as good as advertised. Obviously the best team won. They did what they were supposed to do and obviously it was a tough fight for us. We missed a lot of shots early on and never really got going. But all that said, I'm really proud of these guys and proud of the seniors in particular because they bought into the dream and the vision and it was hard because starting out there was nothing tangible for them to believe in so they had to grasp on to and trust in us, the coaching staff and what we were trying to do and these guys have made history. No one can take it away from them. No one will do it ever again in terms of being the first program or team to go to NCAA Tournament, Morgan State, but, you know, again, after the game, I didn't even really talk to them about the game other than the fact you ought to be gracious in victory and defeat and if someone is better than you, they're better than you. You move on. But their program is where -- is an example of where we want to go and we want to build so coming from three years ago when winning four ball games when we first got there to have back to back 20 win seasons is tremendous. I think these guys played a large part in it. KEVIN KLINTWORTH: Questions for student athletes. Q. Marquise, Jermaine "Itchy". Ameer Ali. What you guys saw, talking to Ameer afterwards and getting ejected as tough as that was for him, give us a sense of what happened out there, the reaction of your teammates. MARQUISE KATELY: After talking to Ameer, he pretty much -- he wasn't trying to hurt him. They just got tangled up and, you know, I feel like it just -- it looked a lot worse but, you know, I don't think he was trying to hurt him. Q. Jermaine? JERMAINE BOLDEN: I didn't even see the incident. I was down court. Q. Can you just talk in general terms about the physical nature of the game? MARQUISE KATELY: They were real physical. You know, they were bigger than us but, you know, we didn't back down, you know, but they did what they were supposed to do. Give them all the credit in the world. Q. Talk about how you try to defend a guy as big and strong as Blake. What do you want to do to stop him from scoring, obviously? MARQUISE KATELY: Really, you know, you double him. He's a great passer. He can pass it, handle the ball. You know, you just got to kind of -- you know, you got to pretty much have help. You got to face front him or, you know, just have the help, rotate. Q. For Marquise and Jermaine, does what happened tonight diminish the type of season that you guys had when you look back, when you still look at it as a very successful season? MARQUISE KATELY: Man, you know, we made history. We did what we set out to do. We didn't get as far as we wanted but, you know, we came a long ways and, you know, I'm just blessed just to experience this. KEVIN KLINTWORTH: Any other questions for the student athletes? Okay. Guys, we'll let you head back to the locker room. Questions for Coach. Q. Again, Coach Capel gave you great credit, knows the kind of coach you are, the way you coach the game. As bad as it looked out there, some of your thoughts. What happened with Blake Griffin? COACH TODD BOZEMAN: I'm not going to belabor the point. Obviously you don't want your players to get into any type of thing that would emotionally embarrass themselves or the University. I don't think he was trying to hurt him. They were getting tangled up and they were in the ballgame. He got tangled up. I told him that, you know, you don't ever want to try to hurt anybody. I told the guys in the huddle we're going to keep the game clean, want to compete and keep it as clean as possible but, you know, there's always a lot of bumping and grabbing. They got tangled up. I'm glad that the kid didn't get hurt. He's a great player. Want one of those. Coached those kind of guys before. It helps, trust me, it helps so -- I'm glad that he didn't get hurt. He's got a great future. He's going to be an outstanding player and one day I'm going to be paying to see him play. I don't have to today but I will be the next time I see him. Q. What was your game plan to defend him? Jeff said that he understands a guy like Blake is a physical player, you have to be physical with him. What did you want your guys to do? Did it -- COACH TODD BOZEMAN: He did catch the ball off the block. We didn't want to double him off the block because he can pass the ball and he was already facing up. I thought the first ten minutes, you know, we competed. We just couldn't make shots. I don't know how long it can last against him doing that because they're going to go inside to him. He had a couple tipbacks. He has tremendous energy. Even before the game, like I said, I mean who stopped him? Who stopped him yet this year? Why would we be any different? But I do know that if he gets somewhere between 20-something and double digit rebounds I don't know if you beat them because that means the other guys are involved and when he gets 40 or something like that maybe, but, you know, I didn't think he caught it too much down in the low post on us. He made some big time shots. Those shots falling away, banking them off the glass. Those are pro shots. He's off the charts. Nothing you can do other than I tried to find some kryptonite but they didn't have it. Q. Talk about after the incident, would have been real easy for this to generate to a free-for-all. Credit to both teams for maintaining composure. COACH TODD BOZEMAN: It was just something that happened. I told him, "You don't want to go out like that." What was I going to do, berate the kid right there? Wasn't going to do. He was thrown out of game. That's his punishment. Go to the locker room. I told the team in the huddle, let's keep the game clean, don't want to hurt anybody, nor you want to get hurt. Play the game. Somebody is going to win, somebody is going to lose. That's how it goes. It's a basketball game. Q. It would have been real easy for the players to start mixing it up. It didn't happen. COACH TODD BOZEMAN: If it was meant to be or intended, yes, it could have been but obviously it wasn't intended. The guys don't play like that. We haven't had an incident like that all year. It's not our style. We don't play like that nor would I want them to play like that. Q. Coach, you made the comments during your opening statements about elaborating on the three seniors, Barnes, Kately and Bolden, how much they will be missed. COACH TODD BOZEMAN: Like I said, they won back to back 20 win seasons, back to back regular season championships. If you note the history of Morgan State basketball you have to go back to the '70s before you could find anything that even comes close to it. So as a Division I, since becoming Division I in '85, I mean two tremendous seasons. Those guys have been a part of it. They put two banners up in Hill Field House and something no one can take away from them. Something their grandchildren will see when they come in. They meant the world. I'm truly grateful to them because it takes those kind of players with commitment and have to buy in before you can build your program. I'm proud of those guys and proud of the season that we've had. There's no way you could -- everybody -- somebody is going to lose. Only one team that's going to have this feeling right here. That's the team that wins it all. So, you know, we were 1 of 65. It was a great season. It's been traditionally the case coming out here. When the bracket buster -- first time ever being in a bracket buster. Like I said, it's going to be -- the field is shrinking today. It's going to shrink again tomorrow and shrink again on Saturday. So, that's how it goes. It's a basketball game. Keep it all in perspective. Q. Todd, you were talking about the two seniors. Can you address the foundation that you think you laid for the next few years, and I have a follow-up? COACH TODD BOZEMAN: I think it's a great foundation. I really look at Kevin Thompson and Rodney Stokes, those are two guys that have some valuable experience and then they played against an outstanding pro, outstanding player in Blake Griffin. You have to get something from that. I'm not mentioning Reggie because obviously Reggie, it will be his team next year and I know him and he's a guy that when he feels bad, he wants something, he's going to work hard this summer and he's going to be on fire next year coming back because that's how he was this year because when we lost in the conference finals last year. So I know how Reggie is. He's going to be off the charts. He's going to lead these guys and raise the expectation level. So it's only going to help us. Whenever you go to the tournament you see a team that comes back, you look at American University how they came back this year and played extremely well and did extremely -- had a great season. So it's because those guys tasted it. They went to the NCAA Tournament. This right here does wonders for your program, for your players' confidence and we didn't back into it. They earned it and deserved it. They had a great year. Q. How confident are you you're going to be a part of that whatever they do next season? COACH TODD BOZEMAN: That time will come. We'll deal with that when the time comes. I'm not going to -- it doesn't do me any good -- I'm not going to negotiate in the media. Obviously I want to be back. I think we're going to have an outstanding team next year but things will work out the way they're supposed to work out. I feel like I did what I said I would do and they gave me an opportunity to. I'm forever grateful for that and I feel as though I honored my commitment so we can -- if we can extend it, fine. If we can't, then things will go the way they're supposed to go. Q. Blake Griffin, who does he remind you of? How good could he be at the next level? COACH TODD BOZEMAN: I said before the game as I watched so much tape on him that he reminded -- I grew up with Len Bias. That's who he reminded me of. I don't know if he's as skilled as Lenny was. He's as good an athlete for sure and he's younger than Lenny when Lenny first hit the scene nationally. That's who he reminds me of is Lenny because of the athleticism and Lenny was big like that and very athletic. That's what I thought of. KEVIN KLINTWORTH: Any other questions? Thank you, Coach. End of FastScripts |
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